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Two Mothers Fight For One Cause
The World Must Know The Truth

�Turtle Beach� (1992) attempts to document the struggle of Malaysia�s Vietnamese boat people. Judith Wilks (Greta Scacchi) is a photojournalist assigned to cover the refugees� arrival. However reaching Bedong, the island where the boat people reside is no easy task, especially since media are barred from entering.

Publication date: December 29, 2009

Two Mothers Fight For One Cause
The World Must Know The Truth

�Turtle Beach� (1992) attempts to document the struggle of Malaysia�s Vietnamese boat people. Judith Wilks (Greta Scacchi) is a photojournalist assigned to cover the refugees� arrival. However reaching Bedong, the island where the boat people reside is no easy task, especially since media are barred from entering. Through her newfound connection, Minou (Joan Chen) a former prostitute now married to Australia�s High Commissioner, Judith at last manages to enter Bedong.

Upon arriving on the island the reporter watches as starving refugees attempt to swim ashore, only to be chopped into pieces by groups of angry Malaysians. Despite her son�s sickness, and the urgency of returning home to care for him, Judith is compelled to complete her assignment instead. As Minou and Judith become closer, it is revealed that Minou has a very personal interest in the plight of the boat people: her sons remain in Vietnam, and must endure the hardship and violence at Bedong, Malaysia�s only port of entry to rejoin their mother.

Yet Minou�s connections to Vietnam are long gone, and she enlists the help of shady investigators to track down her sons and send them to Malaysia. Meanwhile Judith is hungry to capture pictures of the island�s carnage, though her visa is revoked in the process. Nevertheless Minou assists her in sneaking onto the island a second time, when she arrives at the shore to welcome her recently discovered sons.

Judith and Minou, like other foreigners on Bedong, are not treated kindly by the mobs of angry Malayisians. Both women�s lives are at stake and so are the lives of Minou�s sons. If killed both women would lose their families, and subsequently their dreams of publicizing the boat people�s plight.

�Turtle Beach� is rated R due to graphic violence and sexuality. Its runtime is 90 minutes.